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at the top of the show, we asked you why are you awake? producer john with the answer. >> i can't help but being skeevekd out, parasites. >> i can't help you with parasites. strip down, leave the house and don't ever return. "morning joe" starts right now. >> when i'm over here at the congressional picnic and folks are coming up and taking pictures with their family, i promise you, michelle and i are very nice to them, and we have a wonderful time, but it doesn't prevent them from going under the floor of the house and, you

know, blasting me for being a big spending socialist. >> good morning, everyone. january 15th. it's raining out there. >> it's miserable. >> with us on set is msnbc contributor, mike barnicle. his outfit. >> what's up, mike? >> and former democratic congressman, harold ford junior. >> good morning. >> we'll do that later, alex. also, we have this obesity story, coca-cola making changes. i love that. >> they're putting more sugar in. >> no. do you know what they're doing? any know the story? >> yeah, i do. >> they're getting ready for the lawsuits? >> come on. helping america. coming up with smaller cans, 140

calories. >> are people suing coke? >> i think there will be major lawsuits, much like tobacco, against junk food manufacturers and soda pop makers, but they're going to try and mitigate that. >> see what's on today? one month after 20 6 and 7 year-olds were slaughtered, the daily news, i don't know, it's sickening, the daily news talks about how the nra has put out a new app that allows young children and everybody ages 4 and up, to use assault weapons on an iphone app. at an early age, i guess. >> someone sent me the apps available on iphones and other phones. >> how sick is this?

how sick are these people running a great organization, proud organization? how sick are these people that have commandeered the nra and turned them into an extremist operation for survivalist and gun manufacturers? how many million s s of dollars have people made over the slaul slaughter of innocents, now they're doing this. >> at the top of the house, nra does not represent gun owners. they represent manufacturers and money. >> there you go. >> they don't represent million s of americans that want to defend themselves. harold, you're from tennessee, an nra supporter. l let's talk about people in the northeast that don't understand what nra has been, what a great organization it has been through the years.

how the organization has not always been the organization it became in the mid-1990s. could you explain gun owners and how they're appalled by things like this? there are polls out today we're going to be reading today, it's shifted. their extremism is destroying the them. >> many of those were members of nra who appreciated the sports organization who protected the hunters and sports rights have to be curious how and why the organization has allowed the credibility of members to be besmirched and diminished all in an effort to protect people with huge magazines, all in an effort to protect those against comprehensive background checks. the polls show people don't protect those things. >> survivalists for gun

manufacturers. >> and there's no tennessean who appreciates the season's changing and go out and enjoy an afternoon as people do playing basketball and kids going out hunting believe and support an effort, as mike said, the top of the organization to enjoy supporting gun manufacturers and those entrepreneurs interested in exploiting this culture. >> looking at america's views on america. "washington post" abc news poll shows a majority of americans, 58% are in favor of ban on assault weapons. 39% opposed. >> that is a dramatic change. when you were in congress and elected that number was not that way. >> that was upside down, even a month ago, 50-50. americans are deeply offended by the extremists running the nra. those americans are rank and

fic file, too. these numbers are extremism and we warned them and if they don't listen they're facing political doom. >> 88% support background checks at gun shows. >> look at those numbers. i wonder what the guys running for governor in virginia are going to do about the virginia gun shows that allow people, as your husband, jim, showed, that got shot at virginia tech go up with a voided id and leave with a trunk full of assault weapons. >> there was a gun show -- >> saratoga. >> and protests but they sold a lot of guns. >> buying guns is not the issue. this is the kind of polling we need to see in order to confirm we're getting the right people buying them. >> there's a rush on these guns

also, a little strange. >> by the way, whipped up by fear, by talk radio extremists. >> irrational fear. >> by certain websites. >> yes, i would agree. >> people running around, talking about survivalists, needing to buy property in idaho and stockpiling weapons, calling david ker -- ckeresh. >> 85% are in favor of private background checks and 67% in favor of tracking gun sales. >> by the way, this is the result of what wayne lapierre did, the extremist stance the nra has taken since the slaughter of 20 7 year-olds,

putting their feet increment. it's hurting their organization. >> now, 47% americans have an n unfavorable view. >> it's not just the nra, officials beholden to the nra. in the days after the shooting, joe manchin, a plus rating, no one could question his credentials in guns. there weren't a lot of people to follow his footsteps to take that opportunity to say, look, the n remarks is reasonable, we're open, listening, hear you and want to give a little bit. doesn't mean we want to give away our rights to the seconds amendment, obviously. it would have been nice to see a few more people who had the credibility of joe manchin come forward and they didn't. >> we have joe manchin who had

an a plus rating, i had an a plus rating over four terms, come out and say immediately, we have to sit and talk about this. then you have wayne lapierre to come out and talk and do what he did, offended middle america. you have extremists on talk radio talking about this as a war. extremist politicians talking about impeaching barack obama. you have guys that have worked for supreme court justices that say even talking about this is unconstitution unconstitutional. no, it's not. scalia said you have a right to protect your family and have a handgun in your house. the other things, that's subject to government regulation. they overreached. the mothre they overreached, i

warned them, i have been a member all my life -- >> that's nice. >> i will do it again. >> willie, what's my biggest fault. >> you love a little too much. >> that is it. >> i love a little too much. i shared some of that love last week. anyw anyway, it is a still not too late. they can come to the table and be part of a comprehensive package. i'm sure joe biden will accept them and joe manchin will accept them and conservatives will accept them to come to the table. i'm sure their membership wants them to do it, not the survivalists or gun manufacturers who have made millions of dollars off the death of 6 and 7 year-olds, the truth. it's not too late. if they keep their feet in cement, they're going to be run over, not by joe biden, but

these polls show, by middle america, by gun owners, by people that want to protect their children when they're at school, they want to protect their children at shopping malls, want to protect their children when they're in church, protect their children at movie theaters. this is middle america coming after you, nra, not a politician. >> the president is at the forefront and we have to lot to go through. president obama is reviewing a list of gun control items from joe biden. background checks and limits on assault and ammunition. during the-yesterday, problem talks about it. >> those that apologize gun control or measures have a pretty effective way of ginning up fear on the part of gun

owners that somehow the federal government's about to take all your guns away. there's probably an economic element to that. it obviously is good for busine business. responsible gun owners, people who have a gun for protection, for hunting, sportsmanship, they don't have anything to worry about. the issue here is not whether or not we believe in the second amendment. >> the vice president and his staff outlined 19 areas president obama could use executive action to enact new gun control policy. the president confirmed he was willing to bypass congress if necessary. >> i'm confident there's some steps we can take that don't require legislation and are within my authority as president and where you get a step that has the opportunity to reduce

the possibility of gun violence, i want to go ahead and take it. >> mike. >> one of the elements involved in this, when the vice president's report is made public later today is the high capacity magazines. you represent tennessee. you represented the district of northwest florida. you ever meet a hunter that needed 30 rounds to get a couple of deer? >> no. >> it's loo ludicrous. >> joe manchin, west virginia senator, hunting all his life, raised hunting. everybody he knows hunts. everybody he knows hunts. said, i've never met a hunter, in 65 years that needs 10 bullets, when they go out that needs a magazine with 10 bullets. >> or 30. >> or 30. who needs that? why do you need that? you need it for one reason? to kill as many 6 year-olds and

7 year-olds as possible, as quickly as possible. target practice. it's fun they say. that's great. have fun some other way. >> one of the polls you showed that tracked people with gun sales and i'm hope iing vice president biden tracks ammunition sales, important for guns and i'm interested if there's a poll with just nr aa s members, where they stand on this. >> there have been polls conducted? >> since newtown. >> frank lunce has conducted polls. they're there. the majority of nra members want background checks and want these high capacity magazines banned. the numbers are out there, willie.

again, elites in the northeast need to understand nra members are not reflected in the words of wayne lapierre. i know it may feed your bigotry against people in flyover spaces and the way you look down at people from my part of the country, or from harold's part of the country but our people are not the nr arksnra. they are the nra, not wayne's leadership. they're not lapierre. they don't want 4-year-olds to target practice with an assault weapon. it's sick. just sick. they're sick. >> i think a question for some percentage of gun owners is not whether or not they need 30 bullets to hunt but the slippery slope question. again, it's not the majority of gun owners. there is a significant portion of that group that says, if you come first for the 30 flip, what will they come for next so you

have to stand your ground for the second amendment at all costs, stand up to any resistance of the second amendment. >> i'm glad you brought that up, willie, because thank goodness anthony scalia took care of this in 2009. there was always a false argument. if i can't have a bazooka, then you're not going to let me have a knife. it's not true anymore. anthony scalia said every american has a constitutionally protected right under the second amendment to have a handgun in their,000 protect their family, to have a shotgun, basic necessities. then he said, you start getting into these assault weapons, the government has a right to regulate. all these jack caals saying thee shredding the constitution like liberals used to say about george w. bush, they're

shredding the constitution tonight. >> that was a lie when they said it about george w. bush and it's a lie when they're saying it about anthony scalia. what scalia said was it protects america's right to constitutional arms. >> if you listen to the president, you would think that's the view of all of them. >> of course. we'll move onto the debt ceiling with the government on pace to run out of money by mid-february. >> yesterday, the president warned republican leaders raising the nation's borrowing limit was non-negotiable and congress aimed to use it as lever eventuallyiage for deep s. >> while i'm willing to find

middle ground to reduce our deficits, america cannot afford another debate. not paying its bills is irresponsible. it's absurd. republicans in congress have two choices here. they can act responsibly and pay america's bills or they can act irresponsibly and put america through another economic crisis. but they will not collect or ransom in exchange for not crashing the america economy. the financial well-being of the american people is not leverage to be used. the full faith and credit of the united states of america is not a bargaining chip. >> you know, it looks like republicans are up against another wall. but they're not going to be able to get -- they're not going to be able to get, quite frankly, some things they really want, if they're serious, are important. spending issues. but this is -- he's got them again. >> here's the problem with the republican party being owned by

extremists on issues not related to the debt. let me tell you something, the president of the united states, it's laughable that he would talk about republicans not being responsible on debt issues when this president has been in the white house since january the 20th, 2009, and he has yet to do anything significant on social security or medicare. he cut medicare, so he could start a new entitlement program. that's not making medicare more solvent. he hasn't done anything to curb the costs of medical expenses, which he said he was going to do. he did nothing. he struck back room deals with hospitals, big pharma, with special interests and now he's saying republicans are being reckless. no. at some point, it becomes more reckless to continue raising the debt ceiling without having democrats come forth with a budget and the president of the

united states coming forward with a plan to save medicare, medicaid and social security. we had irs skin bow er sk erskine bowles on. and steve rattner agrees and good democrats agree medicare and medicaid are going to bankrupt us. this president is doing absolutely nothing at all! nothing at all to save us from the debt crisis. >> in fairness, that's two separate conversation, the debt ceiling versus how we balance the two programs, i should say create reforms there so we can create new savings. you know as well as i do, the debt ceiling, they ran these bills up a long time ago. whether they should have or not and whether the president should be more responsible in this conversation, i would agree with you. to reduce the debt ceiling, we talked to businesses outside of

new york, if we don't raise the debt ceiling, it's a potential, reality for wrecking -- >> that's the wrong time. >> the debt ceiling is the wrong time to do it. >> saying you can't do it with the debt ceiling, can't do it with the fiscal cliff, can't do it shutting down the government. all i'm talking about, the president of the united states has absolutely no is in no position to talk about who's being reckless with the debt. the real default has come from his lack of leadership on deficits and debts. the federal deficit has been over a trillion dollars all four years he's been president of the united states. he's done absolutely nothing to curb the costs of these programs that will, according to democra democrats -- >> hmm. >> bankrupt us. what has harry reid rand democrats done in the senate? absolutely nothing. how many days since they passed

a budget? >> 1,357. >> 1,357 days since democrats have passed a budget in the united states senate. >> let's talk about that lack of leadership so many people have criticized the president for not reaching out and being a leader and bringing in republicans to really get to know them on every level so they can perhaps negotiate a deal. president obama took a moment to address the criticism within the beltway he hasn't spend enough time developing personal relationships with members of cog. >> most people who know me know i'm a pretty friend lip guy and i like a good party. personal relationships are important and obviously, i can always do a better job. the nice thing is now that my girls are getting older, they don't want to spend that much time with me anyway. i'll be probably calling around looking for somebody to play cards with me or something because i'm getting kind of lonely in this big house. >> a quick search, just for the

record, shows over the president's first term, republican leaders were invited to white house state dinners on a number of occasions j almost all of them. only once did senator mitch mcconnell attend and house speaker john boehner declined each and every time. it's interesting, he's not against attending state dinners. >> can't smoke and don't serve merlot. >> there's president bush, attending a state dinner during the bush presidency. >> he had no problem going when he liked who was in the white house, just had a problem going when it was president barack obama, it appears. >> can we show this graphic. mitch mcconnell went. let's show it. it was a good one. the germans went. they love their sauerkraut. >> they were invited to a screening of "lincoln," apparently at the very last

minute -- >> nobody's perfect. >> i would think when the president invites you to see a movie at the white house, you might want to go. maybe if you were disagreeable in nature, not fun and quite frankly not interested in getting anywhere on spending, maybe you would decline. look at the president. why don't i play that sound bite again, no matter what you think of his ideologically, joe, wouldn't you want to have a beer with that guy or a beer with mitch mcconnell. >> you keep interrupting. >> we should get a jar. >> should get a jar. he's a likable guy. we spent time with him. i like him an awful lot. he's ae's a likable guy. he hasn't reached out to republicans and he hasn't reached out a lot. when he reached out, they haven't come. he said his daughters don't want

to spend that much time with him. he will have a lot of time to play cards. >> get merlot. >> cigarettes. will the president let them smoke? >> coming up. arianna huffington and nbc director chuck todd and "washington post," eugene robinson. by the way, we'll get to this coca-cola story. i will get a flu shot in this show. we'll be right back. i'm jennifer hudson.

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treatment for foreigners who play by the rules but not rule out legal status for those who enter the country illegally. representative paul ryan has already endorsed rubio's plan. legislators find 39 states are not considering new gun regulations and some may relax their gun laws. having more guns available for self-defense may curb gun violence. the "washington post." clarence thomas broke a 7-year silence during oral arguments. what he was saying was unclear. sources say he was joking about the ivy league and the k transcript only partially showed what he said. he hasn't spoken since 1996.

walmart plans to hire any veteran who wants a job and officials project it will lead to 100,000 veterans in five years. >> that's a promise, significant. >> great news. also really quickly again, we want to show while we're doing the papers, the daily news, nra, coming up on the anniversary of newtown, where 20 young children were killed, has put out an app that 4 year-olds can use four years old and up, shoot at targets that are shaped like coffins. >> so get your app. let's go to willie at "politico "politico." chief white house correspondent, mr. allen. you will take us inside the

chuck hagel war room, calling the chuck hagel confirmation war room. where is he? i know he's on the house talking to old colleagues ensuring republicans and democrats of his commitment to close relationship to israel. where is he in the process? >> willie, there's been a real turn and things are now running senator hagel's and people around the table will be encouraged by this choice. senator barbara boxer of california, a democrat who withheld her support from senator hagel announced last night, she's now for him following long conversations she had with him by the phone and most importantly, senator hagel sent her a letter outlining fairly hawkish positions on iran and hezbollah designed to set aside a lot of people's worries about his past positions.

also the administration is behind him and pentagon and white house working to schedule these visits you mentioned to senator schumer and others. also, he's reaching out to veteran's organizations as a key constituency saying i need your help. he used to head the uso and dad was a tail gunner in world war ii and one of the operatives, murr murray, is shepharding him and finally, they're getting together after letting him hang out so long. >> at the inaugural ball, 40,000 people will show up to celebrate. >> this is the more populist, they were talking about going from 10 inaugural balls to one plus the service member ball. it turns out that ball for the general public is for 40,000. these are over two floors, the huge washington convention

center. smokey robinson there, big name entertainers, john legend just announced this morning, chelsea clinton will be the honorary national day of service saturday and members of congress with participate in that and doing service projects saturday two days before the inauguration in all 50 states. >> thank you. coming up, lance armstrong comes clean telling oprah how he really won his seven tour de france victories. next, our good friend, arianne na huffington will join us when we come back.

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welcome back to "morning joe." 6:37 in the morning here on the east coast. as expected, lance armstrong reportedly admitted to oprah using drug enhance enhancing -- performance enhancing drugs. >> unbelievable. i never saw that coming.

this reportedly would cost him $30 million paid to him by the u.s. postal service. >> hold on. what are you saying here? >> it appears lance armstrong was indeed on the roids. >> oh! >> he was on the stuff. yeah. >> he was juiced. >> believe it? >> saw that. >> believe it? >> no. >> it's amazing. >> wow. >> he said this? >> reportedly. we don't know to what extent he confessed. we don't know how long he admitted to having doped. >> i will sell my schwinn. come on. >> i would love to see you in the cycling get-up, shirt and little pants. >> i have one. >> wow! >> he a's been a big fraud, we' always known he's a big fraud. >> it's terrible he doped and defrauded and fooled everybody.

the way he defended himself over the span of a decade, not just defending himself but attacking other people. floyd landis who came up and accused lance armstrong of doping, lance armstrong savage that guy and tried to tear him to bits. going to try to reconcile with him and go see him and apologize. he's on this long apology tour. wise he doing it? we know not because he knows it's the right thing to do. >> i don't know. i think the walls closed and everyone knew. this huge report came out in october, 1,000 pages from the u.s. anti-doping association that laid out the case with everybody he ever performed with. >> what does he do to salvage the reputations of people he tried to and in effect ruined, destroyed their reputations, incomes, the young woman he w-- who worked for him for years,

destroyed her. >> i don't know. >> come with me in central park. >> i can't look at you in those shorts. can you imagine. >> like miss america, going to use a glue. yesterday, did you read about that? miss america used butt glue to keep everything in. we suggested your colleague, al roker could use that. >> unfortunate incident. >> is that a condition that goes around on the "today" show. you're okay? >> shorts over here were bad enough. let's go this the nba. bulls take on the hawks. >> cain just ask you, if that happened to you, would you flush your boxers down the toilet? >> i'm not getting into it. the chicago bulls. >> he missed it. that's a heat check. does anybody know how to post

videos to facebook? oh, my goodness, ty gibson just friend requested him. >> he just friend requested. that was stacy king on the call, former chicago bull, ty gibson tying one down. great call by stacey king. >> are the knicks going to hold it together? starting to look like a clown show. sort of looking like the nba version of the jets here. >> they looked great for the first portion of the season. >> you see what dollen is doing here? they're record iin ining melo. he is eavesdrop iping everywher he goes. >> up next, arianna huffington in the must read opinion pages

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we're just so much smarter about it. we can keep each other in check. going, "okay, i see you." we've lost about 110 pounds together. it helped our love life. happy wife, happy life, right? right. [ jennifer ] weight watchers online. the power of weight watchers completely online. join for free today. 41 past the hour. here with us now the co-founder of the huffing post and president and editor-in-chief of the huffing post. >> she's great. >> she's awesome. we were just gossiping. >> what were you gossiping? >> none of your business. >> i neglected to tell you, the usava, the same group that overseas the triathlons and

lance armstrong wants to get back in good greases to run and do triathlons. >> the only reason he would come clean is to get something for himself. >> confession is the beginning of redemption. >> unless everybody knew he did it. >> it doesn't matter. the point is he had to confess it himself. he had to acknowledge it. he hadn't done so. >> couldn't he have done it a year ago or two? or three? or four? >> i wouldn't say that. he confessed. he admit it, new chapter. >> right. okay. >> live and let live. >> speaking of new chapters, let's talk about the republican party. reading from "politico," the republicans time to choose by joe scarborough. >> that guy is a jerk! >> for the gop to win again, it must dear to embrace william f. buckley's ruthless pragmatic approach to primary learn again

vote for candidates who can win sweeping majorities and just say no to ideological' ideologicalgs to at vans the cause. what passes for a moderate republican in 2013 is laughable. the winds of history have blown barack obama's way of late, not because of some irreversible sociological trend but rather because supporters of todd akin, richard murdoch, christine o'donnell and sharon eng gl, voted for what they saw as ideological purity instead of primary candidates who could win in november. >> if you look at the writings of william f. buckley, what did buckley say? vote for the conservative. the most conservative candidate that has a chance of winning. ba because extremists have taken

over the party process in some states, you've had people like murdoch, akin, sharon angle, christine o'donnell. if they listened to william f. buckley they'd control the senate. >> don't you think he would be endorsing ting chuck hagel righ? here is a republican -- >> yes. at the end of his life, william f. buckley said near conservatives were not actually conservatives. their beliefs had no basis in reality. >> this is a great example for the republican party to rally around a moderate republican who will help us redefine foreign policy and get away from the neo cons who are never held accountable for all the mistakes around the war in iraq and afghanistan. neve never. >> you know, harold buckley,

william f. buckley asked about the iraq war and george w. bush. george bush is conservative. he's a conservative guy but he's not a conservative. he said conservatism requires a realization of what's reality out there. again, if the party would listen to buckley that listened to reagan and listened to some of these leaders and the tent would grow and colin powell wouldn't be on the outside looking in, on the face of party that needs that guy's help. >> there are conservatives criticizing general powell's remarks articulated in short the challenges facing the party and arguably the challenges facing politics. i would agree and resemble remarks arianna made not only what republicans should do with chuck hagel. without the republican party being strong and viable nationally, it creates a vacuum

in washington. i'm a proud democrat and love to see the president prevail for more often than not but you need the minority to have some strength, have some credibility, viability if for no other reason to get deals done. poor john boehner can't get a deal done because he can't shepherd and lead republicans, i have to tell you, joe, you talk about the '94 class, being difficult, this class today and represented by that guy, tim, that came on your show. as a leader and republican with dealing with him day in and day out, buckley looked at facts. >> buckley said -- >> and made decisions. >> buckley said conservatives were chained to reality, whether they liked it or not. he defended ronald reagan when right wingers attacked him to california and said what would you like him to do, chain himself to the state capitolened

read the liberty documents? at the end of the day, it's about winning. is the republican party more likely to win swing voters over if it's embracing colin powell or constantly attacking him. if they could pull moderates like him back and expand the tent. >> you have even seen now with mark rubio, what he's saying around immigration, some of them are beginning to recognize you're not going to be able to be a governing party and get back the white house without having an immigration strategy that allows latinos to be incorporated in the political situati system and have a path to citizenship and paul ryan agreed. some of them are beginning to realize political reality and facts. john boehner, one of the problems, he inflammatounfortun not seem to have the leadership

skills to lead instead of following the tea party in his caucus. >> i would disagree. i'm not here to defend him. he voted the right way and had a 2-1 against him in his own caucus. he has to lead his own caucus. i have to tell you, looking at that caucus, i would be hard-pressed to find someone to lead that group that doesn't subscribe to ideological purity. i give him some credit, boehner, trying to lead that group. >> joe, your argument extends to politics in 2006, john boehner was not conservative enough for prominent members of the conservative media and so they got a term of barack obama and then second term. would you rather have someone conservative enough or rather have someone 's completely conservative and lose the election. know of three guys think going about running and beaten

obama and didn't because they felt the party was too far right. mitch daniel, jeb bush and chris christie. all three of them looked at what was going on at the end of 2011 and said, really, do i want to get in the middle of a fight with guys like herman cain and possibly sarah palin? am i really going to engage in that type of debate? so it's not just the people we had out there, arianna, that really just shattered the republican brand at the primary process, it's the strong leaders that stayed away because of their fear of being dragged down into a mud pit. >> also those we don't know about, people staying away from politics simply because they don't want to be dragged into what politics has become. also the issues they picked. debating contraception in 2012 was not going to be a winning issue. they had a winning issue, the fate of the middle class.

that would have been the winning issue. by the time romney got to that, they had wasted so much capital in all these fringe issues that really completely alienated major parts of the voting population. >> i think republicans win when we're talking about debt, when we're talking about deficits, when they follow chris christie's track record, mika, he was very aggressive going after unions that were being reckless with state money. he was going after democrats that didn't want to do the right thing on deficits. he's at 72, 73%. >> they're not doing that. >> there's a winning way forward for republicans. they have to say no to the extremists that have run their party too long. staywith us, ahead, chuck robinson. and focusing on sugary sodas and

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coming up, more with arianna huffington and harold ford junior and jon meacham joins the table. do you like sam, arianna? you do? >> i love sam. >> no complaints about him. this is the time. back with him in a moment. the w. surgery was successful, but he will be in a cast until it is fully healed, possibly several months. so, if the duck isn't able to work, how will he pay for his living expenses? aflac. like his rent and car payments? aflac. what about gas and groceries? aflac. cell phone? aflac, but i doubt he'll be using his phone for quite a while cause like i said, he has a fractured beak. [ male announcer ] send the aflac duck a get-well card at getwellduck.com.

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released it to the wild and that's when m aracoonmacoona-ma in. >> go on, whiskers, good luck. >> how do you feel? >> i'm relieved he won't wake me up in my bed anymore and crawl on my leg. it's kind of sad. [ laughter ] >> no! are you kidding me? he didn't last five minutes. >> that's kind of how i feel everyday. th that's funny. >> fantastic. >> welcome back to "morning

joe," harold ford junior and arianna huffington are with us. historian and author, thomas jefferson and art of power, jon meacham, senior political editor and white house correspondent from the "huffington post," sam stein. we're going to be talking about the new huffing post series and the road forward and president obama's challenges and sam in just a moment. are you okay? you doing all right? >> yeah. every time i think of it -- >> that's what you feel like everyda everyday. >> so, jon meacham, so you were entertain i entertaining a meet at a great southern estate and everybody's finest gathered around your dining room. what did they want to know? >> they wanted to know how large

is harold ford's closet? >> it's bigger than this studio. >> stein, you don't need to be laughing about this. >> have you seen the actual new wardrobe? >> do you think he would allow me in to his place? >> no. no. >> he has a restraining order, i can't even go on his block. >> you go into harold's very humble understated apartment -- >> how big is it? >> just talk about the personal space or the public entertaining space, because it's the closet is the remarkable thing. >> is it true he has a sign over the closet door that says zan zanadu? >> okay. can we get to the news. >> actually, aer mrkmerma under. >> is that a deal? >> a huge deal. >> s this is a surprise. i hear through the grapevine, your favorite television show is

"sons of anarchy." >> obsessed. >> i do not take you as a motorcycle gang. >> we haven't known each other long enough. i've been watching this. it's as good as "the sopranos." >> tell us what you love about it. "the soprano's" ability to take an outlaw culture and these are real people beneath their criminal mentality. >> like talking about the metropolitan opera? >> i'm telling you, they will have a massacre of some kind, the cell phone will ring and their wife will say, why didn't you bring home the milk, they'll go, i'm so sorry. like when carmelo was reading memoirs of a gay show wheneverry book club was reading it, the wonderful eye for detail. >> like sopranos on motorbikes as somebody in my family said.

>> fair enough. >> what were you wearing when they said that? >> he has a smoking jacket. >> unfortunately it's a paisley smoking jacket. that's okay. >> you actually want me to do the news now? >> he has one almost patched. >> he has it on his pajamas has a patch on it. >> i'm just examining -- >> there's nothing special about it. >> he has a blue blaze sneer nothing special about it. >> no cuff links, no special little things. >> man of the people. and a closet named xanadu? this is a north florida boy taking on memphis is all it is. >> you know what, you say, taking on the hamptons, okay. >> i'm sorry about that memphis thing. >> my wife and i enjoyed the day with you in nantucket, it was outstanding. >> was there a special permit he had to get from the buildings department for the size of the

dressing room? >> there are several new polls out this morning taking a look at american views on guns in america, new "washington post" "abc news" poll shows a majority of americans, 58%, are in favor of a ban on assault weapons. 39% oppose. >> that is quite a leap. >> yeah. that would be a change over time that perhaps some people, like the nra, might take a look at. an overwhelming 88% support background checks at gun shows. 65% support ban on high capacity ammunition clips. 85% of americans are in favor of making private gun sales subject to background checks and 67 prnsz 67% in favor of a database to back track gun sales. it is quite weak as it stands right now. as for the nra's approval rating, 44% of americans now have an unfavorable view of the nra. i wonder why that could be?

i'm serious. >> listen, harold and i have dealt with people in our political careers and supported by the nra and know nra members and when i saw wayne lapierre at that press conference, that guy wasn't the face of the nra i've known for decades, wasn't the face of the nra joe manchin has known for decades, wasn't the face of the nra hunters have known for decades. yes, scalia said americans have a right to keep and bear arms, to have handguns, hunting rifles, shotguns. wayne lapierre is not talking about that, he's talking about a very extreme view of the second amendment right most nra members don't adopt themselves. >> he seemed totally divorced of the reality of the moment of a few dozen kids shot and killed in newtown, not once, not twice,

multiple times by clearly someone de ranged but someone who had access to a sem semi-automatic weapon. this polling will continue to strengthen the administration's case and curious to see what joe biden's recommendations today versus legislative action and curious if this congress, depending how much they're asked to act upon and more interested in watching the president willing and determined to get through by executive order changes who can buy guns and how we track people who buy ammunition and guns critical to get- >> arianna, let me just say, again, we're talking about reality, divorce from reality, william f. buck slaying you canyou -- william f. buckley saying you can't be divorced from reality. and nra launches a game where 4 year-olds can use an app for

target practice at corffins. >> the president is not planning to include a ban on assault weapons in what joe biden is going to be proposing. is emphasis is on background check, limiting the ammunition a gun can carry but not ban on assault weapons. if you look at the numbers, the majority of the american public would be in favor of. this is this time for radical leadership on this issue, not just to be safe. >> sam, it seems to me, there's sometimes in politics where when you lose, you win. if the president decides to move on an assault weapon ban extreme amendments that weren't protected in the heller case, the government could regulate,

make extreme elements in both parties, go out and try to defend survivalists who say they need a bushmaster. that ain't going to play well in 2014 or 2016. >> i think the white house is looking at all options right now with respect to what type of religions they choose. the -- what type of regulations they choose. i think the polling you showed bears it out. my reporting suggests it's probably the most likely one to be dropped ultimately in the end but they'll probably make some sort of push at the beginning. the key thing is they want to do universal background checks and thinks it's common sensoe refor any who buys a gun should be cleared and generally nra members are in approval of that and don't want nut bags to get guns. and make it's easier for law enforcement officials to track down illegal possession of guns

and right now there's not a law to prevent gun trafficking. they want it on the books. they want common sense stuff and reach a little beyond that and let the crazies basically argue it's not smart and then the politics plays out the way they wan want. >> joe, you tweet and i re-tweeted the cover of "the daily news" and it's getting a good conversation. let's talk about the ni "huffington post" series, the road forward. president obama's second term challenges. >> there were 2,000 reporters with harold fiein man leading te charge. how daring is president obama in his second term and able to be a transformational president rather than a president of only eight who won a 50% majority for his second term, which is a

significant achievement but not a transformational one. focusing on his biggest vulnerability, the fate of the middle class, the fact that on his watch, the middle class is worse off than it was when he first took the oath of office. there really is no plan to change that. when he talks about plans for the second term, he's focusing on immigration, gun safety, energy, but when he talks about fiscal stability, he's focusing more on the deficit and less on job creation, how we're going to strengthen the middle class, even though that was a pivotal issue with the campaign. we look around with students not being able to pay student loans coming out of college and able to get jobs, this is a real vulnerability.

165,000 new jobs last month is not enough to turn things around. >> here's a preview of sam's article coming out this friday. barring a collectively experience, there will be no postpartisan era during the obama administration, obviously we hoped for something better conceded david axelrod, obama's long time close advisor in an interview. and to the extent that the president can do more, he will. but this is largely a function of the decision on the republican party to try and thwart him at every turn. as a political strategy, as for the next term, i think a lot of it will end up having to do with how the republican party sees the future. survival is a strong instinct. if republicans think there is a political advantage to them personally to continue this manichean struggle then that doesn't bode well.

>> a debate who is responsible for the lack of bipartisanship in washington. i'm not going to even go there. that said -- >> you should recommend people read my article, though. >> go there. >> you aren't really arguing this is just the republicans fault, are you? >> first of all, let me say what a pleasure it is to be on a panel with arianna huffington. it was on my bucket list. now, i can die in peace. >> capitalism goes. >> the point is a useless exercise you're getting at. you can go back and forth, whose responsible and who's not. the bigger issue is talk about this whole notion of post partisanship, a huge them in 2008. a lot of people flocked to obama back then because he promised to sand down politics depressing edges. it hasn't happened. the question is what does that mean for him in the second term,

who was responsible in this first term. >> what responsibility does the president bear in that? >> a lot. >> i'm curious. >> in what ways? >> first of all, if it's your campaign theme and a big promise you're pledging, you're supposed to go out and try to achieve it. to obama's credit, i think he's done a yomen's like work to reach out on many occasions to reach out. you can argue whether he's good at it or not. we had a discussion about his ability to bring people to the white house, smooze with them, rub elbows and get them to help him out. he has moderated his legislative path. now he's trying a deficit tact, working around it and you're seeing it with the debt ceiling he said flat out, i'm not going to negotiate on this stuff. >> sam, when you were doing this, did you look back by what

margin successful second term presidents have passed big things? >> yeah. >> like president reagan in 1986, a partisan line vote. >> i think history as a guide suggest there's a one to two year legislative window productive legislative window for a president. that makes it true how do you interact with congress and avoid gridlock and you talk to his aides they know how to get legislation done and know the window is very short. how do we get to the middle ground and find a path to get something done with congress by working with congress. now, it's let's go and work against congress and get public pressure against lawmakers to badger them into what we want. it's a much more confrontational approach and remains to be seen whether things get done productively.

they're very bullish on immigration reform and getting it done the first year in office. whether it's guns or entitlement refo reforms, they're much less bullish on that. >> all right. how did he do, arianna? sn>> absolutely perfect as alwa. >> is it bonus season? >> when we come back, nbc director chuck todd with yesterday's presidential news conference and "washington post" eugene robinson joins the conversation. mine was earned in djibouti, africa, 2004.

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when item over here at the congressional picnic and folks are coming up and taking pictures with their family, i promise you, michelle and i are very nice to them, and we have a wonderful time. but it doesn't prevent them from going under the floor of the house and, you know, blasting

me -- onto the floor of the house and blasting me for being a big spending socialist. most people who know me know i'm a pretty friendly guy. and i like a good party. personal relationships are important. obviously, i can always do a better job. the nice thing is now that my girls are getting older, they don't want to spend that much time with me anyway. i'll be probably looking around for somebody to play cards with me or something because i'm getting kind of lonely in this big house. >> "morning joe," at 23 past the hour, talking on a misty day in washington. nbc white house political director chuck todd. >> and also a very friendly guy. >> he is friendly. >> i like a good party. >> are you lonely, chuck? are you lonely? >> yes. >> you want to play cards? >> i like playing a good game of

poker. if he wants to invite us over, we'll all play poker. >> i think the president's friendly, i do. but meachem points out -- >> mika, i could tell you, no criticism bothers him more than this one of late. here's whether re it comes from. he gets a lot of outside friends and come in here and tell him the same thing, how come you don't do more of this. not the formal stuff. i know you're talking about the state dinners. the little stuff. somebody will come and say, how come you're not like lbj and trying to get drinks with -- how come you're not like bill clinton and not inviting mitch mcconnell and harry reid to camp david. how come you're not like ronald reagan and throwing back whiskey with tip o'neill. it is that stuff, as you've been noting and he pointed out, he does this but i think this is

where there's a little bit of disconnect. i think there are people on the outside and look at what other presidents -- and say, why don't you do this more? the white house will say, guess what, people used to say the same thing about clinton and reagan. my guess is the truth's somewhere in between. it's not exactly as if the president uses his golf game to lobby members of congress, he doesn't. not as if he has a card game once a month he's bringing over the leader. he doesn't do things like that. is that part of the job description? >> the president said at the press conference yesterday, he has played golf with john boehner, does a good golf game. it didn't help in the negotiations. boehner keeps refusing invitations to multiple state dinners. there seems to be a problem when members of the republican caucus don't want to be seen to be having fun with the president or having dinner with the president because their constituency might

not like it. >> right. i think there's something to that. i go back, that's where -- so he'll get this outside advice from friends outside the white house who say, do it informally, do more informal stuff. the formal stuff gets covered -- >> like breakfast or screening of "lincoln," casually sitting back and watching a movie. >> i got the same notes from the white house as well overnight on this topic. i know this bothers them. this bothers the president. he thinks it's unfair criticism. i'm telling you how it percolates. >> it percolates sometimes when people want to spread rumors that aren't true and really don't want to take responsibility for being intolerable and difficult to be around. quite frankly, if you're john boehner and you go to state dinners that president bush hosts and you don't go to any that president obama hosts, i think right there the proof is

in the pudding. let's go to washingt"washington pulitzer political analyst eugene robinson. eugene. >> i'm just imagining the next press conference the first one in the new term, somebody asks, mr. president, can you produce evidence you like a good party. item not sure this is a serious discussion. he's a friendly enough guy. >> they're making it a reflection of hiss leadersh lea abilities, to be a leader you have to pull people in, socialize with them and got to know them families. guess what. you can invite people over. if they don't come, is the responsibility on you? at that point, they've got the problem. >> he is president. i suppose he could dispatch secret service to haul them in. short of that, i don't know what he can do to make people come over.

some people are more touchy feely than other people. that doesn't change the fact we live in a much more ideological age, where people just kind of turn their backs on each other ideologically in terms of policy and sometimes personally. >> jon meacham, on the best selling biography of jefferson, he was brilliant in using entertainment to bridge differences. >> what would jefferson do? >> thank you. every night jefferson was in session, he had lawmakers down. here this is not nostalgic, he only had federalists or only had republicans because he didn't want them fighting with each other. he knew he had limited time. he wanted to weave attachments to him. if they didn't come, you're right, they couldn't be part of this larger discussion. there is an interesting

intellectual philosophical point here. it goes to both republicans and whether they participate and the president, whether he initiates, which is there is a republican, lowercase r virtue, you know this well of social yabability you don't know each other -- and i know too much about harold. >> it goes both ways. >> to block it out of your mind. >> she knows this from washington, if you know each other, you're more likely to make what jefferson called mutual concessions of opinion for the greater good. if we don't know each other, don't know our neighbors, the congressman in the next district, however it works, why would i pay higher taxes for your kids to go to school? why would you sacrifice something for me to get health care? >> why would you believe if i told you i would be with you the next time? developing relations. >> not just legislative, culture. you have to know each other for a republic to work. don't have to love each other but have to feel neighborliness.

>> that's a good point. look at congress. there was a time members of congress lived in washington. now, it's a three-day workweek e essenti essentially, tuesday, wednesday, thursday, they're on planes back to their districts, no matter how far away for the four-day weekend. they don't spend that much time together, don't spend that much time in washington like they used to. the old sort of image of the washington dinner party in georgetown, where decisions are made and even where friendships and bonds are created that lead to those decisions, that's kind of out-dated. >> it's the politics. the problem is it's us in the media. if they get together. this goes to mika's point about what she said about the white house and what the president was saying yesterday, if somebody is seen with the president from the

opposite side, that would be news, right, because it doesn't happen anymore. it would be news an could become -- look what happened, the president brought this up, to charlie crist, actually touching the president turned out to be a political liability for charlie crist. now -- i think the other part of this is, you talked about this getting together, if they're seen -- some of these new members believe if they go to a party where the other side is, that will become a political liability. this era of transparency in the -- in this flat media world, while on one hand a good thing and we're making sure these guys arguably aren't getting bought off by k street. at the same time, made a lot of them -- they sleep in their offices, it's thursday night, got to catch the plane to go home, it's sort of warped this process a little bit. >> i totally agree. i think that's exactly right

about the capitol side of this. i would argue if we can make this sociabilil abilitywork in country and stop associating ourselves into pre-existing tribes what happens in the country will be reflected in washington. i think we all know, whatever we want we will get from politicians. >> the sad thing is there is evidence that people -- that this disease that's basically started in washington and politics where people sort themselves red and blue, and only hang out with themselves, it is now seeping into neighborhoods. you hear about neighborhood homeowner homeown homeowners' association, only democrats are hanging out with democrats. it's bad local politics, bad national politics, bad all around. >> okay. eugene robinson, we will be reading your column in the "washington post." chuck todd, we will see you on the rundown right after "morning

joe." arianna, thank you for coming down. my flu shot is coming. barnicle, you're not doing the flu shot. that's got so many poor connotations to it, i'm just going to move on right now. >> i will sort myself away. >> we'll be right back. [ male announcer ] staples is the number-one

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all right. it's 37 past the hour. joining us now, because i will get a flu shot. nbcuniversal chief medical officer, dr. tanya benningson, hi, doctor, nice to see y you -- while you're here, i will ask -- >> what's with the michael jackson thing? i don't know what he's doing with his glove. >> i will do a procedure on meachem. >> seriously, are you ready? >> seven second delay. >> is this a digger phelps moment here? >> did you give him the glove? >> don't do that. >> like a little kid. >> don't humor the animals. >> i think he -- all right.

let me get to the obesity story since we have good doctor in the house, okay, then i will get a flu shot, which we can do at any time because they don't hurt and everyone should get one. did you all get yours? do you need one? >> i'm fine. >> i have one just in case. >> i'm fine. >> there is an unlikely debate, if you can believe this, local governments considering similar natures similar to mayor bloomberg's crackdown in new york city. do you like that? >> i love it. >> coca-cola is now stepping into the conversation. coke has unleashed a new ad campaign that defends its record while acknowledging the weight problem. here's the two minute ad. >> all calories count no matter where they come from including

co coca-cola. if you continue to eat more calories than you burn off, you'll gain weight. the well-being of our families concerns everyone and a continued solution is needed from all of us. we know if we come together, we can make a real difference. >> wow, coca-cola is expected to begin airing, listen to this, a second ad tomorrow night focusing on how many calories are in each can of coca-cola and how americans -- what they can do to burn it off. what do you think? >> i can't believe they said all calories are equal. coke is not just a regular calorie. every calorie you put in your mouth should be valuable has nutrition to it. >> you're saying it's extra valuable, a coke calorie gives you extra energy. >> it's a waste of time to drink liquid sugar. >> thank you. oh, my god! thank you so much. >> hold on a second. first, we find out that lance armstrong is doping and now you telling united states drinking

liquid sugar is -- what did you say? >> i call it poisonous to children, toxic, i think we'll get there. >> i think it helps bone mass grow. >> it helps belly mass grow. >> it's become a part of -- because of what this company has done, the commercials, sponsorships, everything, all the people who stand up -- i know beyonce is doing a big campaign for pepsi. that has really made these drinks part of our children's lifestyle. that's got to be changed. >> it's so easy and has to change. >> it's probably even addictive. can i have my flu shot? >> i think you're being harsh on coca-cola. >> the what's your favorite moment? >> mine will be tomorrow night. >> a six-pack of coca-cola in south vietnam many years ago,

coca-cola was hard to get, wasn't my money. it's a great drink. it's part of the problem, there's no doubt about that. obesity in america. >> i would submit a larger part of the problem, if you look at bus stops in this country, many cities, you will see kids eating ring dings in the morning. >> thank you very much. please have a seat. >> can i just say, as a native of atlanta, georgia, there is nothing wrong with coca-cola. >> can i say, as the home of the first coca-cola bottler in chattanooga, tennessee, it has contributed to the global culture of american greatness that has spread liberty and freedom in unprecedented ways. >> mika, is there something wrong with liberty? >> honestly, i didn't want to put the doctor in this position, i appreciate your candor and the flu shot i didn't even feel. >> really? >> because you were just drinking coke. >> no, actually, they're getting

ready for the big lawsuit. it's coming and this is their preventive measure. >> can i say something as a coca-cola customer? >> sure. >> it is -- for a corporation to do, to be sure, in corporate terms, that's a big step. you may disagree. for them to say we are part of the problem and we have to do something is more -- >> isn't it like mcdonald's selling salads. >> that's better than they're not. you can't be against choice. >> so selling like little pieces of water lettuce -- okay. you guys don't get it. dr. tanya, thank you very much. coming up next, with the dust settling from the 2012 election, michael hastings takes a look back at one of the most intense political battles of our time, joining us next on "morning joe." ♪

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she's so brave. so brave. >> i didn't even do it. >> not brave. i literally didn't know she was doing it. >> going against an institution like coca-cola. >> get ready for lawsuits. oh, god, this will turn out so baddeley f badly for anybody that makes junk food or soda pop. >> first bloomberg goes for the movie theaters and soda and now coca-cola. >> eternal vigilance. with us now, contributing editor of "rolling stone," michael hastings out with a new e-book, "panic 2012," inside story of obama's final campaign.

we understand you were almost kicked off the plane. it was a revolt! >> it was exciting. >> the peasants were coming after you. >> i do not get along well with organized groups of journalists, it appears. >> another one, huh. >> what do you do? >> i had -- was covering the obama campaign for buzzfeed. during the last two months when everyone was getting crazy about every little thing that went on, i wrote a story pointing out president obama had shown up a couple -- about a month earlier at drink session with journalists, all did the fact he showed up. >> hanging out with journalists, having a coca-cola. >> knocking back a sam adams. i'm not allowed to say he was doing that and what he might have been doing if he was there. >> actually there. >> i'm not allowed to acknowledge the existence of it. but i did. i wasn't up on the necessarily niceties. >> you're supposed to lie about what the president does. >> that's what i was told afterwards even though it's part of the white house pool policy

to note it. >> the reporters, not any white house. the reporters get really angry with you? sn>> they were. i was lectured by the guy who runs the white house correspondence association and sat me down. >> who was that? >> ed henry. he's in a tough spot, dealing with reporters from the white house and people like me. i pity him. i pity him. then they said, you know, if you continue to do this, you're not going to be welcome here. and that was one of the moments i go into detail in the book, probably more detail than any needs to know, check it out. back and forth this crazy way the white house is treating journalists, plus the larger story of the last few months of the campaign. >> what was the big headline for you. what did you see we did in the mainstream media. >> thank god for the first debate. what would political journalists

have done with the catastrophe in denver. i go through with why that happened, who gave him bad at vice. people i spoke to blamed david axelrod for telling obama to go big and try to talk directly to the american people. it very clearly, mr. axle road, there's another gentleman who advised the president to keep looking down at notes, who had been in the debate prep as well. >> who was that? >> michael sheehan. then we go through benghazi, inside the war room there and end with the storm. >> what happened with benghazi? what happened? >> i think -- >> inside the war room? what were they trying to manage? >> i think what happened was that the white house itself was looking at benghazi as part of a larger conflageration in the middle east. and we seized on benghazi and focused on that. when they're in the war room the next week or two after they're

thinking the entire middle east to central asia could go up in smoke. that's what they're concentrating on. once they realized the ambassador is missing and likely dead, all of a what would have been a bad, horrible news situation become this historic event. had that been happening on the politics side of it -- i don't think they acted politically -- you know, as politically as people probably would accuse them of but i guarantee you they were advising the white house who saw the benghazi headlines and thought to themselves jimmy carter. >> during the course of covering the campaign, did you encounter -- do you encounter -- because you come from buzz feed -- sort after distance from the more, for lack ever a better phrase, more established national press corps? >> well, hi -- what i call the lindsay lohan mean girls treatment which -- you know -- lindsay shows up. >> wow. >> you know, people are intrigued. become part of the group. everyone is getting along. then the realization like oh, this journalist is from buzz

feed. he is doing something different and the walls can go back up. but that's -- >> tell the truth about having drinks with the president. >> yeah. >> where did you get that idea? >> apparently they asked him why does he party more? he's fun to be around. >> they just don't want to report. >> it funny thing about that -- we were talking about it earlier, it is in the white house logs. you know, where the president flies to, where the president goes. it is a public record. i don't understand the -- >> well, what it came down to who controls the -- that's what it was about. the white house and the other co -- it was not big deal. it was about -- you know, how the campaign and how the press corps interacted, controlling the narrative, the campaign wants to put out there. any little infraction needs to be, you know, slammed down upon very, very -- >> was there a moment after the denver debate where the obama team really felt they might lose this thing? we hear that they were cool,

they looked at their data. and -- you know. will not lose. >> okay. after the 47% video, everybody in the campaign thought they had it locked up. after denver, we have a scene in the book where literally it is the most -- what senior obama officials wash prosecuting chicago says my god, we have been working with this guy for two years and we always thought if he lost it, it is because we let him down. obama let us down tonight. that was a real, real thing. and they did panic. and there was a ten-day period of frantic panic that happened after that. >> the president understood that. we heard afterwards he went around apologizing to his top adviser. >> he had gone around apologizing. they had a meeting at the white house the debate prep team where the -- debate prep team wrote a memo for him. he sat them down and look the blame and also pointed out -- other people who might have deserved criticism forgiving him

bad advice. >> had a drink with them. >> amen. >> amen. >> you can read an excerpt in our blog mojo.msnbc.com. >> here we go. >> looks great. >> on the ipad mini. >> get that up. >> my ipad so mini i can't find it. >> look at that. look at the camera right there. seriously. there you go. that's just huge. >> looking ahead to tomorrow, former senior campaign advise wr -- adviser for president obama joins us.

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♪ first year of the obama presidency of behind-the-scenes look at the accomplishments, the battle lines, grand bargains, that works and that would bust. up next, the nra wades deep near debates over guns in america. but launching a free ipad game for kids to play target practice

probably wasn't what most middle americans were looking for. we are going to faulk about that and much more. surprising new polls on gun control straight ahead.

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♪ good morning. it is 8:00 on the east coast. 5:00 a.m. on the west coast. time to wake up, everyone. a live look at new york city. welcome back to "morning joe." with mike barnicle and harold ford jr. >> see what's on "daily news." >> yes.

>> one month after 20 6 and 7-year-olds were slaughtered "the daily news" -- mike, i don't -- i don't even know -- it is just sickening. "daily news" talks about how the nra put out a new app that allows -- >> oh, my god. >> -- young children and everybody, ages 4 and up, to use assault weapons on an iphone app. >> someone september me the apps available on the iphone and other phones. >> how sick is this? how sick are these people that are running a great organization, a proud organization? how sick are these people that have commandeered the nra and turned them into an extremist operation for -- for survivalists and for gun

manufacturers? how many millions of dollars of have people made over the slaughter of innocents? now the nra is doing this? >> at the top of the house the nra does not represent gun owners. >> they do not. >> they rep gun manufacturers and represent money. >>. >> there you go. >> they don't represent americans, millions of americans that want to defend themselves. harold, you are from tennessee. nra supporter. let's explain maybe to -- some people in the northeast that don't understand what the nra is, what a great organization it has been through the years. and how the organization -- not always been the organization it became in the mid 1990s. can you explain about nra owners and how they are repulsed by what is going on now with things like this? because the polls out, by the

way, we will be reading today, it has shifted. they are extremism -- their extremism is destroying them. >> i think many -- many of those who are members of nra who appreciate and support the organization's initiative and protecting sportsmen and hunters' rights have to be curious as to how and why the organization has allowed the credibility of members to be besmerched and magazines. showing these polls this morning, showing the majority. >> they are devastating for the nra. >> now wash did a. >> survivalists, gun manufacturers. >> who appreciates the seasons changing and the opportunity to go out and enjoy an afternoon in the northeast playing basketball, football, with their kids, and anyway, would believe and support an effort as mike said the top of the organization

to enjoy supporting gun manufacturers and those entrepreneurs interested in exploiting this culture. >> let's go to the polls and continue this conversation. >> all right. there are a few of them, actually. looking at americans' views in america. abc news poll shows a majority of americans, 58%, are in favor of a ban on assault weapons. 39% oppose. >> that's a dramatic change. >> when you were in congress and you were elected that number was not that way. >> it was upside down, even -- a month ago it was 50/50. americans are deeply offended by the extremists running the nra and -- those americans can -- are rank and file nra members, too. these numbers are breaking because of nra extremism. we warned them. they are not listening. they listen now. are they facing doom, political doom? >> overwhelming 88% say they support back ground checks at

gun shows. >> look at had a. look at the numbers. i wonder what the guy running for governor -- guys running for governor in virginia are going to do about the virginia gun shows. allow people -- as your husband, jim, showed, that got shot at virginia tech to go up with a voided i.d. and leave with a trunk full of assault weapons. >> there was a gun show recently in new york, i believe -- >> saratoga. >> tons of people and there was also protests but they sold a lot of guns. >> selling a lot of guns. >> 65%. >> let's be clear. buying guns is not the issue. ought to be checking. these are the polling we immediate to see in order to confirm we are getting right people buying them. >> there is a rush on these guns also which is a little strange. >> by the way, whipped up by fear, by talk radio extremist. >> irrational pier. >> by certain websites. >> yes, i agree. >> people running around talking about survivalists needing to --

needing to buy property in idaho. and stockpile weapons. calling david koresh. go ahead. >> 65% support a ban on high-capacity ammunition clips. 8 a% of americans are in favor of making private gun sales subject to background checks. and 67% are in favor of creating a federal database to track gun sales. that does need to be done and much more in-depth and effective way. >> this is the result of what wayne lapierre did and -- the extremist stance, nra has taken since the slaughter of 20 6 and 7-year-olds. putting their feet in cement. it is hurting them, too. it is hurting their organization. >> as important the nra's approval rating, 44% of americans now have an unfavorable view of the nra. just in case you might not agree. >> all those numbers beg the question we have been asking a lot of is not just the nra but

the elected officials beholden to nra. the days after the shooting, we will say it again, joe manchin sit there, a-plus-plus rating, no one could question his credentials on guns and he said i don't want people to have their guns taken away. let's have a reasonable conversation. there were not a politicians to follow in his footsteps to say the nra is reasonable, we are willing to give a little bit. it doesn't mean we want to give away our rights to the second amendment. obviously. it would have been nice to see a few more people who had the credibility of joe manchin to come poured at that moment and just didn't. >> you have joe manchin, democrat, that has an a-plus rating. i had an a-plus rating over four terms. come out and immediately go -- okay, listen, we are going to have to sit and talk about this. and then you have wayne lapierre come out and do what he did which -- again, offended mid

america. >> now we are going to move on and do a few more other stories in this block. and the next one, i believe, is on the debt ceiling with the government on pace to run out of money by mid february. president obama warned republican leaders raising the borrowing limit was nonnorthbound deg officialable and struck back at members of congress who aimed to use the issue as leverage to extract deep spending cuts. >> while i'm willing to compromise and find common ground over how to reduce our deficits, america cannot afford another debate with this congress about whether or not they should pay the bills that they railroad lacked up. even entertain the idea of this happening. of the united states of america not paying its bills is irresponsible. it is absurd. republicans in congress have two choice hears. they can act responsibly and pay america's bills or they can act irresponsibly and put america through another economic crisis. they will not collect or ransom

in exchange for not crashing the american economy. the financial well-being of the american people is not leveraged to be used. the full faith and credit united states of america is not a bargaining chip. >> you know, it looks like republicans are up against another wall. they are not going to be able to get -- not going to be able to get some things they really want if they are serious. >> yeah. >> are important. >> well, i -- >> spending issues. this is -- >> here's the problem with the republican party being owned by extremists on issues not related to the debt. deficit. the president of the united states -- it is laughable that he would talk about republicans not being responsible on debt issues. when this president has been in the white house sin january 20, 2009, and he's yet to do anything significant on social

security or medicare. he cut medicare. so he can start a new entitlement program. that's -- not making medicare more sol vent. he doesn't done anything to curb the cost of medical expenses which he said he was going do. he did nothing. he struck back room deals with hospitals, with special interests, and now he's saying republicans are being reckless? no, no. at some point it becomes more reckless to continue raising the debt ceiling without having democrats come forward with a budget, by the president of the united states, coming forward with a plan to save medicare, medicaid, and social security. we had erskine bowles on. he was very clear. steve ratner agrees. zeke emanuel agrees. democrats, good democrats, agree. that medicare and medicaid are going to be bankrupt us and this president is doing absolutely

nothing at all, nothing at all, to save us from the debt crisis. >> that's two separate conversations, though. the debt ceiling versus how we balance those two -- two programs. should say create some reforms there so we can create new savings. you know as well as i do that the debt ceiling, they ran these bills up a long time ago. whether they should have or not, where the president should have been more responsible in this conversation, there's a lot of argument, to use the debt ceiling, you and i both know, talked to many in the business community and financial services and mainstream business community outside of new york, if we don't raise the debt ceiling in a potential -- real potential, reality, for. >> okay, okay. but, you know can't do it with the debt ceiling, fiscal cliff, you can't do it when you are shutting down the government. all i'm talking about is the president of the united states has absolutely no -- in no

position to talk about who is being reckless with the debt. the real default has come from his lack of leadership on deficits and on debt. the federal deficit has been over a trillion dollars for all four years that he has been president of the united states. he has done absolutely nothing to curb the costs of the programs that will, according to democrats, bankrupt us. what's harry reid done in the senate? what have democrats done in the senate? absolutely nothing. how many days, alex, since they passed a budget? >> 1,357. >> that's pretty good. 1,357 days since democrats have passed a budget in the united states senate. >> let's talk about that lack of leadership that so many people have criticized the president for not reaching out and being a leader and bringing in republicans to really, you know, get to know on every level so that they can perhaps negotiate a deal.

president obama took a moment to address the criticism within the beltway he hasn't spent enough time developing personal relationships with members of congress. >> most people who know me know i'm a pretty friendly guy. and i like a good party. personal relationships are important. and obviously i can always do a better job and the nice thing is that now that my girl are getting older, they don't want to spend that much time with me anyway. so i will be probably -- calling around looking for somebody to play cards with me or something. because i'm getting kind of lonely in this big house. >> okay. so quick search just for the record shows that over the president's first term, the republican leaders were invited to white house state dinners on a number of occasions. almost all of them. only once did senator mitch mcconnell attend while house speaker boehner declined each and every time. it is interesting -- he's not against attending state i didn'ters. >> can't smoke.

>> in 2007. >> they don't serve merlot. >> there's speaker boehner at a state dinner but that's during the bush presidency. he had no problem going when he liked when he was in the white house. he just had problem going white was barack obama, it appears. i can't imagine he was busy -- also republican -- >> mitch mcconnell went. let's see what happened. the germans -- >> can't even -- they were invited to a screening of "lincoln." very last minute. >> nobody is perfect. >> but i would think when the president invites you to go see a movie at the white house you might want to go. maybe -- i don't know. maybe if you were disagreeable in nature, not fun, and not interested in getting anywhere on spending then maybe you would decline. when we come back, inside

obama's presidency. frontline goes behind closed doors for a revealing look at president obama's first term. award winning documentary filmmaker michael kirk joins us next. also ahead, best-selling author and host of the history's channel "decoded," brad meltzer. let's go to bill karins. >> not a thriller. >> anything else? >> the forecast. >> that's it. good morning, everyone. the snow is falling in dallas, texas. they have had thunder snow. literally snowing hard. will was claps of thunder. people saw lightning. this is what the radar looks like. let me show what you the live pictures look like. salt trucks on the elevated overpass as the dallas ft. worth area, one of the worst travel spots in the country this morning. you only have about an hour or more worth of the sleet and snow

in this region. you can see the blue on this map. that's actually the heavier snow and sleet pushing out of the dallas area. up towards oklahoma. and eventually through arkansas, be careful around memphis. you can have an ice storm. ice storm warning up to a half an inch of ice, could get power you onnages with downed trees. that's the purple coloring here from northern louisiana up into southern portions of tennessee. later tonight, all of this is heading for new england. little mini snowstorm late tonight and early tomorrow morning. the poconos, catskills, connecticut, southern mass, northern rhode island, possibility of up to three to six inches of snow. especially if you are at higher elevations. big cities i-95 won't be so bad. very cold, too. look at denver this morning. minus 23. we have the winter weather problems today. dallas, little rock, heading for southern new england tomorrow. with the spark miles card from capital one,

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♪ as the week wore on obama began to worry about the grand bargain. >> the speaker called back and by then, everybody knew what was going on. the president was pretty ticked. we were all pretty ticked. >> in the oval office when the president is on that phone call, neighbors see the president is so angry they worry the

president is going to break the phone rvr. boehner said the president was so angry and so hot he was spewing coals. >> that was -- that was a clip from frontline's latest documentary inside obama's presidency. a look at the president's first four years in office. joining us now from boston, front line producer michael kirk. jon meacham, mike barnicle and howard ford jr. with us as well. welcome to the show. >> good morning. miss to see you. >> nice to have you on. >> thank you. >> "frontline" is so rightly praised for the campaign documentaries and the biographical documentaries. what surprised you most having worked on so many of these as a pl franchise and looking back at the first term. >> amazing to me to revisit the three, four, five really central moments that happened with obama during this critical first term. and to project what we could --

almost like a prime other what we can expect in the next few crucial months especially around the fiscal cliff stuff. it is really remarkable how he's changed from the man who promised bipartisanship to the man you just played on the program giving that press conference yesterday. >> we heard in the clip we played, still photos, bill daly, former chief of staff, during the grand bargain negotiations, also had harry reid, the gang of six, playing a part in those negotiations. what does in the program -- what happens? how does it collapse and who, if anybody, is a singular culprit or are there multiple culprits? >> amazing when you look back at all the decisions he went through from the stimulus when he first got in the health care reform, to all of it, and then you get down to the grand -- the quo, unquote grand bargain part of it you suddenly realize a

picture emerges of a man, much more conservative. not such a great negotiator. sort of bending and kind of flexible and -- in a -- way that -- i don't think any of us really expected him to be and you learn in our form about the other side, too, the republican strategy and how it worked. where boehner and he found themselves as these two guys that were conciliators, trying to do something big, you know, as they face the grand bargain, debt ceiling deadline, and discovered in boehner's case, man, was he hammered by his caucus. and in obama's case, he didn't really -- he didn't really seem to grasp what it meant to have a negotiation at this level. it is very revealing, as you watch all of the things that happen to him across his first four years. how in some ways ill-prepared both of the men were prepared despite the fact they are working in this pernicious environment in washington. >> speaking of john boehner

here, is another clip from inside obama's presidency with john boehner. >> dealing with the white house as i'm dealing with a bowl of -- like dealing with a bowl of jelge jello. they refuse to make tougher choices facing entitlement reform. that's the bottom line we are heading into the weekend with the best opportunity for preventing economic cataclysm on a global level from occurring it is now gone. there is month deal. >> it seems like barack obama and john boehner could do well to spend a couple hundred dollars and hire professional mediator. >> you know, it is probably something, as you know, much larger, much more proceed pound than that with implications, i'm now making a film about the fiscal cliff and the debt ceiling that -- that will air in about a month. you know the scary thing about

it, you guys, is the idea there may be government month by month as they pass resolutions and as this -- struggle continues. both sides really hunkering down, i think, for something that almost seems unsolvable. and how we got there, i think, is central thesis of our film tonight and the thing we should all be -- i think extremely worried about. >> michael, good morning. harold ford. you talk about health care and how and what the president learned and decided to go forward in the face of some opencism withopen s -- openciopposition. what do you think show took from that experience that applied or maybe not applied in the grand bargain experience? >> it is a funny thing about the health care debate. you know, we were in the middle, as we all remember, of an economic crisis. cataclysm maybe and his chief of

staff recaomney he manual and others said it is enough to solve the economy. obama says in our film, you know, i'm not going to just sit back and rest on whatever we put on the shelf because we saved the economy. i want a legacy to shoot. i think that the desire to get that almost any cost reveals his willingness to bet -- i mean, remember, it is basically romney care. a program he brought from republicans to washington with all kinds of compromises built into it, big pharma and other things. he didn't get a single republican vote for that bill and made a lot of democrats take a hard vote that yielded the mid-term shellacking he got. did he learn from that in the grand bargain? that's the interesting thing to watch in the program tonight. what parts of him does he bring to this struggle and what parts of it don't work? >> michael, the film's assessment, alluded to it, stated it, the president of the united states not exactly a terrific negotiator. not a skilled negotiator.

so -- in the -- in this film, finality, the whole film, in the work that you are doing now about a future film in the fiscal cliff, has he grown as a negotiator? what has he learned in this process of negotiations? >> that's a fascinating thing to watch here. right through from the election on. it is -- there is a tougher, harder barack obama. i'm not sure tougher and harder is necessarily everything he's going to need in this situation. he's got those republicans once it was 87 that -- freshman class that he struggled with in the grand bargain moment. they are still there. eric cantor is still will. i'm not sure -- i'm not sure that the qualities he brought to the grand bargain are the qualities that he's necessarily going to need here. there is a kind of -- at least yesterday a kind of inflexibility there that is new and i think when you watch it,

you watch that space closely over the next few months, you are going to know how hard the road is going to be ahead for him. i have a feeling the republicans are not going to just roll over and compromise themselves just because he's being -- or appearing to be tough. i'm not sure that history, at least his immediate history, teaches us that that works for him. >> all right. you can catch "frontline inside obama's presidency" tonight at 10:00 on pbs. michael kirk, thank you very much. >> that looks great. >> my pleasure. >> coming up, brad meltzer weaves a dark chapter through his greatest thriller. next on "morning joe."

♪ here now is a promo, a preview, a trailer, in case you missed any of the action on the first would episodes of "downton abbey." take a look at this. >> coming up on season three of "downton abbey" -- ♪

"downton abbey" -- check your local listings. >> that's the show you watch all the time. here with us now, brad meltzer. the host of the history channel show "decoded." and author of the new novel, "the fifth assassin." he joins thus morning. welcome. when did it come out, what day? >> today. >> today. >> huge! >> i'm right here for you. >> kaboom. >> that's it. i get a new suit important you and everything. >> that looks nice. >> month, no. you just gave me the -- the thing my wife gives me like that works for. >> did you it is not actual lay suit. >> it is an ensemble. >> but i have nothing to do -- >> i think it is okay. >> yeah, yeah. >> i stop at the -- >> it is very nice. let's talk about the book. >> yes.

>> book is amazing. >> you put one of these things out every lee weeks. >> two years. >> seriously. what is it? do you have an auto pen? >> because we do a show like "decoded" no one gets crazier e-mail than me. people brought me the holy grail at one of my book events. if you are looking for the holy grail i had it important a little bit. a guy came to me and said i work in a museum in washington, d.c., and said nobody knows about it. you have to come and see what we have. just tell me what have you. he said we have bones of john wilkes boothand the bullet that killed abraham lincoln. come see it. that i want to see. i went there. he didn't just have the artifacts from the lincoln assassination. had the other assassinations as well. it got me thinking, you know what, we know there are over two dozen attacks on the president of the united states. four have been successful. what if there is a serial killer who is slowly meticulously re-creating the crimes of all the presidential assassins from john wilkes booth to lee harvey

oswald. they are all working together important the same secret cause over a century. he wants to be the fifth assass assassin. that's where the book begins. >> okay. >> this is good stuff. >> good stuff. this isn't time travel. >> month. i don't do that. this is -- i like -- >> it is a -- centurylong conspiracy. >> centurylong conspiracy. the idea is, you know, when do i the research i like to get the details. i can make up whatever i want. when you look at the actual assassins that tried to kill a president, amazing what they have in common. you will see that they are all -- not drinkers. they don't do drugs. none of them did drugs. they are almost crazily neat. except when they pull the trigger they are not known as a troublemaker. they are men with a cause. you can divide assassins into two categories, hunters and howellers.

howellers make e howlers. a hunter is different. a hunter takes action and make plan and they execute. interestingly hunters have no interest in howling and howlers have no interest in hunting. when you look at the four from john wilkes booth to lee harvey oswald they are all hundreders. >> where do you stand on oswald and being the lone figure? >> i mean, do i think -- that there are other stories going on simultaneously? i do. i don't know why oswald died. that's what i can't figure out. if you look at what the american people believe, they believe in the warren commission. the jfk moveies and oliver stone monday sense and crazy things that come up they believe the government. we want to believe our government. to me i think if you look at -- look at what we are watching now. look at "argo," "zero dark thirty," "lincoln," we so badly want to to see our government as great. that's in these stories as well. >> what's the seek remember service do within the secret service about psychological profiles of assassins or potential assassins you alluded

to? >> secret service did a study and tried to figure out what all these assassins have in common when you look at all the people that tried to kill a president, they have nothing in common. no age range. they are all over the map. no financial thing. nothing. it is when you look at the four that are successful you see the overlap. interesting to me, for instance, three out of four are in their 20s. so when like at what's happened in connecticut, people look at it and say my gosh, how did the country -- what's the country coming to? i look and see a sociopathic 20-something that keeps to him self and uses violence as a way to take action. that to me is something that's part of the american psyche and been happening for centuries. and that's the scariest part to me you see this happening over and over and over. hunters coming out there. >> you -- sorry. st. elizabeth hospital. >> yeah. i have some of it, yeah. that's where they keep john hinckley. >> i know, i spent some time there. >> i -- >> too easy. way too easy.

>> john hinckley. >> i went there. the guy that runs st. elizabeth, reads my books. he came to me and said we love that used st. elizabeth's and want to see what's inside. >> isn't it fascinating? >> the new building -- i don't know if you have been to the new build. >> she has been to all -- >> you will see the new building. it is amazing. one of the things we do here is do camp david. we all know camp david. right? what really goes there? i went -- you know, george w. bush -- h.w. bush has been a source for me for many years. and helped me with the book. i get to ask him these fun things. i got to ask him in this book what it is like when someone wants to kill you on a daily basis. one of the things that was fun to me is to find out about camp david. people -- it is a playground for the presidents. they can do skeet shooting, play golf. bowl. there's no press. and so bill clinton when he took office, they said you can go there. well, i have allergies. there's month press there. he said i will be there tomorrow. one of things i found is the

secret tunnels that are below camp david. and so there are actually secret tunnels below will. you will where they come out. i don't want to ruin chapter 57 in "the fifth assassin." you will see where they come out. >> that's my favorite chapter of the book. please don't ruin it. let's talk quickly about -- you know, "the da vinci code." like this book, through the centuries, they had their -- they had their cause. can you give as you little hint? what's the cause? what's -- >> yeah. i will give you a hint without ruining the book. tried to find a link they had h in common. i can make up whatever i want. we know the true story is the scariest story. if you look at the first three assassins, they have one belief in common. they believe that god chose them for this moment. and that to me i couldn't ignore. you know what, if you want to have something in common, use the reality. you don't need to make it up. the fiction is best when it has one foot in reality. >> would they have the same

faith? they were the same faith in the sense of totally crazy. they literally -- one thinks that god himself, you know, he -- his final words are -- you know, what god whispered to him. and -- they -- that's their faith. their faith is themselves and their belief this is the action they should take. >> garfield's assassin and mckinley's assassins were anarchists. >> mckinley was a complete an arkist. garfield's was -- he wanted a government job. >> that's really the wrong way to go. >> sometimes that's an anarch anarchist. >> read the book. >> life advice. >> the book is "the fifth assassin." >> it sounds great. amaze. >> thank you. >> i appreciate it. >> congratulations. will you sign mine? >> i will sign it. >> we will be right back with "business before the bell."

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...you'll bust your brain box. ♪ all on thinkorswim from td ameritrade. ♪ ♪ a cadet found a mouse in his dorm room. instead of killing it he did the humane zmg brought it out and released it into the wild. that's when -- set in. >> pre, go. get on out. good luck. >> how do you feel about that? >> i feel relieved he is not going to wake me up in my bed anymore, crawling on my leg. kind of sad, you know.

no! are you kidding me? five minutes. >> that's the most amazing video i have ever seen. it is time now for business before the bell. >> you haven't seen a lot of video. >> sorry. i like it a lot. >> every morning here. >> you just -- yeah. everything. everything i have ever seen. >> flu shot. >> great. not the flu shot i'm worried about. all right. i felt that was fun. >> i did, too. >> he let the mouse go and it is dead. it is time now for -- >> how's john when you met him? be careful p. >> i have been to real careful. he was -- surprisingly lucid.

>> really? >> seemingly sane. yeah. >> what year was this? >> and proud of himself which was sick. yeah. all right. >> when was it? >> that was in college. georgetown. '99 -- '87. right? does that make sense? >> part of a summer project? >> it was -- part of a -- community service. you went to st. liz list and played cards with mass murderers. >> attempted assassins. >> yeah. >> what i didn't understand is what -- they let me do that. i mean, i was in will with them. just sitting there with them. >> the circle of life. you went to visit president reagan in the hospital. >> i did. i did. >> you get both sides of the story. >> i got both sides of the story. >> can i ask you -- >> not funny. >> no. you go to the -- attempted assassin and the president. >> he talked about it. >> how do you -- how did you meet president reagan in the

hospital after his assassination attempt? >> through his wife and dana. why? >> curious. not all of us visit presidents in hospitals. so some of russ fascinate bid this. >> okay. i played cards with john hinckley. >> i did. that i think is interest. >> visited in the hop to president reagan. >> fellow st. elizabeth residents who had done terrible things. it was incredible. >> this is not the life we all lived. >> learned to deal with extreme characters. >> huge closet or not, this is even -- >> michelle caruso-cabrera. i'm sorry. this is -- you see what i have to deal with here? >> now my morning work is done. >> michelle, business before the bell. you have a possible warn thing morning. >> yeah. we are looking at the markets opening. how do i follow all of that, i don't know. >> don't worry about it. just ignore it. >> the markets look like they are going to open lower. could be a couple of reasons.

ben bernanke made a speech late yesterday. some people in the market may have thought that he wantsment quite as enthusiastic about doing things to support the economy as maybe they had hoped. that's up for debate. also, one of the companies that gives a credit score to the united states has come out and said that if washington doesn't deal with the debt ceiling, they could be downgrading the united states, the watch for that. once again the debt ceiling. i want to point out one thing. the last time we went -- whole drama about the debt ceiling, we got downgraded, do you know what happened to the interest rates? they went down dramatically. yeah. the -- treasury market actually went up. happened to be the same time that europe was going through its crisis. and -- the safest investment in the world seen at the time is still by many people in the world is the u.s. government debt despite the huge amounts of it we continue to borrow. >> are you still traveling around the world? >> yeah. i'm the chief international correspondent. fourth quarter was dominated by domestic news.

i did travel in the fourth quarter. we are waiting to see if the italian elections with berlusconi should be interesting. waiting for chavez the die. >> that should be a party. >> always interesting. >> come back when you can. >> if you can stick around as much as possible so we don't have to talk to brian sullivan. >> i was trying to say that nicely. >> i know. i decided -- put it out there. >> take a little break. >> the sounchded so offer sound. interesting. [ female announcer ] going to sleep may be easy, but when you wake up in the middle of the night it can be frustrating. it's hard to turn off and go back to sleep. intermezzo is the first and only prescription sleep aid approved for use as needed in the middle of the night when you can't get back to sleep. it's an effective sleep medicine you don't take before bedtime. take it in bed only when you need it and have at least four hours left for sleep.

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